Consumer group Which? has launched legal action against tech giant Qualcomm accusing the US chip firm of anti-competitive behaviour.
The case will be held in the Competition Appeal Tribunal on Monday and is expected to last five weeks.
Which? has alleged that Apple and Samsung, two major customers of the company, were forced to pay unfair prices for Qualcomm chips and services, with the inflated fee being passed on to the consumer.
If successful, this case could force as many as 30 million consumers in the UK who purchased phones from Apple or Samsung between 2015 and 2024 to receive a payout, which come out to roughly £17 each.
Appearing on BBC Brakfast, Which? senior lawyer Lisa Webb said while the focus of the case is on the chips used in Apple and Samsung phones, the case “could stretch to far wider reaches”.
Webb said: “Qualcomm is an absolutely enormous global manufacturer of tech, and in the case we’re talking about, we’re talking about the chipsets that they manufacture.
“What we think here, though, is that those chipsets, which effectively enable your device to be smart, because it means that you can connect to 4G networks, were sold to those manufacturers like Apple and Samsung at a far more inflated price, purely because Qualcomm could do it, because they had so much power in the market, they were able to name their price, and that then meant that the cost of devices was increased, and that was passed on to consumers.”